


Pine

by kaguneko (alittlecoco)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Eruri Secret Santa 2017, Fluff and Smut, INDEFINITE HIATUS, M/M, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, No Plot/Plotless, Teacher AU, i dont even know what a plot is, permanently incomplete...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 11:00:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13122360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlecoco/pseuds/kaguneko
Summary: Eruri Secret Santa 2017Pining teacher eruris. Little-to-no plot. The goal is sleepy sex.****INDEFINITE HIATUS****Zed, my love, I am sorry. You deserved a secret santa who knew how to finish what they started.





	Pine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zeds_Dead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeds_Dead/gifts).



> Baby, you deserve the world.

 

Levi’s classroom always smelled a little like cinnamon and a lot like lemon-scented cleaner, and the combination clung to Erwin’s dress shirts for hours after.  He liked it, that smell; it reminded him for some reason of Christmas.  Faded ones from a long time ago that he couldn’t have back, but when he took a deep breath in Levi’s classroom, he let himself wish that he might.  Maybe in a dream.

  
Erwin had no idea what Levi himself smelled like, if the cinnamon trailed after him and the lemon soaked into his hair, or if his natural scent was something entirely different.  Erwin wished he knew, though, possibly more than he longed for impossible Christmases.

  

* * *

  

He poked his head around Levi’s open classroom door, knocking gently as he went, and got a lungful of more cinnamon than usual.

  
“Levi?” Erwin wheezed quietly as Levi’s head snapped up.  He was hunched over his classroom sink and he was a mess.

  
“Hey,” Levi grunted without turning around.  Erwin tried not to look at the way his apron nipped at his waist, making it appear even smaller than usual.  He swallowed and paused at the doorway.

  
Levi turned slowly when Erwin didn’t say anything further, shutting off the sink as he went.  He frowned at Erwin, tilting his head, and leaning back against the counter.  “You need something, Smith?”  He sounded exhausted, but Erwin knew his irritated growl and this wasn’t it.  He sounded nearly pleased.  He asked Erwin the same thing every afternoon.  Erwin couldn’t very well say, _I just like your company.  In fact, I’m addicted._  So he always put on his most charming smile and sat at one of the student’s stools because Levi seemed to find the awkward sprawl of his limbs amusing.

  
Today though, Erwin looked at the mess of Levi’s classroom and said, “Would you like some help?”  The last of his own students had hurried out the door for winter break an hour ago and Erwin had scrambled as well, cleaning his room haphazardly, hoping to catch Levi before he left.  He had meant to ask something else just now, something a little closer to admitting he’d imagined Levi’s hair sleep-mussed, but the way Levi’s little head tilt and narrowed eyes stripped Erwin down to half his size made him hesitate.  Erwin rubbed at his mouth, worried his thoughts showed on his face.

  
Levi gazed at him a moment longer before his face relaxed.  “Sure,” he shrugged.

  
Erwin let out a breath as Levi turned back to the sink.  “You can wipe the countertops down,” he muttered over his shoulder before going back to scrubbing the pans his students must have left behind in their rush to leave for break.  Erwin’s mouth twitched.  How uncharacteristically lenient.  Soft.

  
There was a plate of freshly baked cookies on Levi’s desk that make Erwin’s lips curve into a full smile.  He hoped it was a gift from Levi’s students.  The thought of Levi with a sweet-tooth was... cute.  Painfully so.

  
Erwin made his way from countertop to countertop, swiping with those lemon-scented wipes that made him think of Levi now whenever he went grocery shopping, which inevitably left him curious as to whether Levi’s hair was as soft as it looked—and did the lemon smell cling?  Erwin wondered and wondered and wondered.  

  
Levi was silent expect for the sloshing water.  Erwin glanced at the apron bowed neatly at the small of his back and then up at that silky black hair.  His undercut looked like velvet and it made Erwin’s fingertips tingle.  He shoved it away and scrubbed hard at a sticky stain on one of the tables.  There was a distinct possibility he had completely misread Levi over the last few months and that would ache like a wound.

  
He hadn't expected that.

  
Levi turned off the faucet just as Erwin moved to wipe down the counter next to him.

  
“Say, Levi,” he began, still unsure if he was actually going to _ask_.

  
“Did you clean them well?” Levi drawled in a weary, resigned sort of way.  He looked sideways at Erwin’s hand where he gripped a wipe.  Erwin wasn’t sure if he’d actually made a sound at all or if Levi was ignoring him.  “You seem like a dabber,” Levi continued.  His voice trailed off to a hoarse rasp at the end.  Erwin wondered if he’d yelled a lot today, trying to wrangle the kids.

  
Erwin cleared his throat and took a step closer, wiping just by where Levi’s waterlogged fingers pressed against the counter.  “I did,” he said.  Levi’s fingertips turned white where they pressed down.

  
“I’m going to check,” Levi threatened, even softer than before.  He still watched Erwin out of the corner of his eyes.  Erwin paused, looking down at Levi’s barely pink ears.  He was going to miss that flush dearly if he’d miscalculated.  It was hard-won and, god, did he enjoy working for it.  He shifted another half-step closer, so that he could feel the heat Levi’s tiny body gave off.  If Levi leaned a just breath to the left, he’d press up against Erwin.

  
“That’s fine,” Erwin said slowly.  “I’m not bad at cleaning, you know.”  He inhaled.  Lemon and cinnamon and soap.  “Say, Levi,” he tried again, hoping he was actually making noise and not just pushing soft wheezes out of his throat.

  
“What,” Levi muttered to Erwin’s hands.

  
Erwin wished Levi would look up at him.  “Do you have plans for winter break?”

  
“I’m going on a cruise,” Levi said blandly.  His fingers twitched and Erwin’s heart sank.

  
“Oh,” Erwin breathed.  “That’s wonderful.”

  
Levi huffed and glanced up with bright eyes and an incredulously crumpled forehead.  “You think I can afford a cruise?”

  
“I—” Erwin’s knees felt oddly like they’d ceased to exist.  “I have no idea.”

  
“Can _you_?” Levi’s eyes narrowed now.

  
Erwin could, in fact, afford a cruise if he really put effort into budgeting during the rest of the year, but mostly he was incredibly distracted by the upturn of Levi’s pink-stained nose and the faint, playful light in his eyes.  “I’m not going on a cruise,” he managed.

  
“Too bad for you,” Levi said.  He turned his head to stare at the clean dishes in the sink.  Erwin swallowed while his heart rattled his chest, wondering how to proceed or if Levi was going to simply clean the dishes all over again and ignore him— when Levi moved just a breath to the left.  Erwin was certain Levi could feel his heartbeat.  Levi’s ears flushed darker than his nose and Erwin thought he hadn’t been wrong.

  
The odd lightness spread from his knees to creep up his spine and make his hands shake.

  
Levi burned him up where they pressed together.

  
He hadn’t been wrong.

  
“It’s not that bad,” Erwin said.  He wanted to bury his face in Levi’s hair.  “I might miss you over break, though,” he said lightly.  “Maybe.”  He could feel every inch that Levi pressed against.  “Possibly.”

  
“Shut up.  It’s just a week,” Levi muttered.  But he leaned the slightest bit more weight into Erwin’s side.  Their arms pressed together awkwardly.  Erwin realized he could tuck Levi up under his arm perfectly, if Levi would let him.  But his underarms were sticky with sweat and he didn’t dare.

  
Levi pushed away from him before he could say anything else, leaving Erwin cold where his warm body had leaned.  He stalked across his classroom to the plate of cookies Erwin had noticed earlier.  Erwin trailed carefully behind him, tugged along in the wake of cinnamon waves.  He wanted that heat pressed against his side, to his chest.

  
_Don’t be creepy_ , he thought firmly.

  
“These are for you,” Levi said abruptly, grabbing the plate and holding it out in front of himself.  He glared up at Erwin.

    
Erwin’s eyebrows shot to his hairline.  “Oh?  Did one of my students make them?”

  
Levi frowned and directed his glare at the plate of cookies in his outstretched hands.  “No.  Just take them.”

  
Erwin took the plate, tentatively reaching for one.  “Who made them?” he asked, smiling and curious and still biting back the desire to tug Levi back to his side.   _Don’t_.  He popped one in his mouth partly to distract himself.  “They’re _good_ ,” he said, surprised, through a mouthful.

  
Levi rolled his eyes, but his hands picked at the hem of his sweater.  

  
Erwin swallowed hard around the cookie.  “Did you make them?”

  
“You eat like an animal,” Levi said.  “I had extras.”

  
Erwin grinned.

  
“There’s chocolate in your teeth,” Levi mumbled, looking away with a half-hearted scowl that faded immediately to wide-eyes at Erwin’s rumbling hum of approval.

  
Erwin went in for another cookie.  “Want one?” he said around the food in his mouth. 

  
“You’re an idiot.”  Levi resembled a tiny preening bird, however, and Erwin thought he definitely did not ‘have extras.’

  
_I’m not wrong_ , he prayed.  He rolled his tongue around his teeth.  “Levi,” he said.  He was going to do it, he was going to— The sound of shoes slapping down the hallway tugged at Erwin’s attention.  But he was going to do it and he wouldn’t be creepy because he wasn’t wrong.  Levi’s eyes flickered over his mouth.  He wondered if he had chocolate there too.  Would Levi kiss it off, if he asked?  “What are you—”

  
“Levi!” Hanji swung round the doorway, holding onto the frame.  Erwin bit his tongue and tasted blood.  Hanji froze.

  
“Oh,” they hooted.  “Oho.  Never mind, then.”

  
“Shut up,” Levi said.  His face bloomed a fetching shade of scarlet.

  
Erwin felt like he’d be run straight through with glares where he stood between the two of them, so he shifted awkwardly to the side of the classroom, holding the plate to his chest like a dragon.  “Hanji,” he said politely with his mouthful of blood and bits of cookie, “hello.”

  
“Heya, Erwin.”  Hanji winked.

  
Erwin frowned.  He glanced at Levi.  Levi gave him nothing to go off except that Hanji might be dying in the next few minutes.

  
“Hanji,” Levi said.  His voice dropped an octave, sending a shudder to play up Erwin’s spine, little shivery taps along the bone that made the back of his neck flush hot.  “ _What_ do you need?”

  
If Erwin was suddenly aroused, Hanji just looked manically amused.  They grinned.  “It was just a stain.  My bad.”  They waved it off with a hand.  Their safety goggled appeared to be splattered with something dark.  

  
“Hanji,” Levi growled.

  
But Hanji was already backing out of the room.  “You have a good break,” they chirped.  They winked again at Erwin and flounced back out the door with a finger gun for a last word.

  
Erwin turned to Levi, half forming the words to ask him what the hell that was about, but Levi was scrubbing a hand down over his face and then back up through his hair, making it stand on end.

  
“I should go see what the fuck they did,” he sighed.  He looked at Erwin with wide eyes.  Erwin wanted to pick him up.

  
“Want me to come?” Erwin asked.  He wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.  A week was a long time; the teenagers were right after all.  He caught a snatch of a memory— _Erwin, baby, you’re too intense.  It’s kinda weird_ —and he sighed.  “I mean,’ he continued, “if you need the help.”

  
Levi shook his head.  “It’s definitely not _just a stain_.”  He shoved his hand up through his hair again.  A little bird with feathers all askew.  “Go home, Smith.”

  
Levi’s dismissal landed hard, square in Erwin’s gut, even if he’d said it as gently as Levi could manage.

  
Another memory crawled through his brain— _Smith, whatdya got a stone heart or some shit? Jesus_.

  
_Not so much it seems_ , Erwin thought.   _Unfortunately_.

  
“Nice hair,” Erwin said in a light tone that cost him some effort.  He tried for a smile and placed the cookies on one of the countertops before making his way carefully over to Levi so as not to frighten him into flight.  Levi watched his feet first, then up his legs to rest his gaze on Erwin’s chin.  “Do I have chocolate on my chin?” he asked.

  
“No,” Levi said quietly.  “Just your teeth.”

  
Erwin huffed.  “Well, your hair’s a bird’s nest,” he murmured.  Levi gave him one of his unreadable glances, but he didn’t look away when Erwin made to reach for his hair.  He held perfectly still as Erwin combed his fingers through it, gently coaxing it back into order.  Erwin didn’t think the man even breathed.  His hair _was_ as soft as it looked and Erwin had to bite his sore tongue to keep from dipping his nose to see what he smelled like.

  
“Levi,” he said lowly.

  
Levi blinked up at him, wide eyes mostly pupil as they flickered between Erwin’s throat and making dazed eye-contact.  Erwin’s fingers were still buried in his hair.

  
“Would you like to get drinks?”  The tips of their shoes nearly touched.

  
Levi’s lips parted, brows raising in slight surprise.  “When?” 

  
_Now_. “Tonight?”

  
After a beat, Levi’s mouth nearly twisted into one of his grins.  “Alright,” he said slowly.  “I’ll text you when I get out of this hellhole,” he said.

  
Erwin’s stone heart dropped heavily into his stomach where it throbbed hot as hearthstones.  “Alright.”  His fingers were still in Levi’s hair and Levi hadn’t moved away.  “Okay.”

  
“Okay,” Levi mimicked.  His mouth twisted a little more.

  
Erwin wondered if he’d grin against Erwin’s lips.

  
Levi reached for his wrists and Erwin thought, wildly, that Levi was going to kiss him, right there in the classroom.  That he’d stretch up on his toes and let Erwin’s hands slip to cup his neck.  Erwin would kiss the tip of his nose and bite his lips.  But Levi gently tugged his hands out of his hair.

  
“Shit.  I gotta go check on Hanji.”  He rolled his eyes.  “If they’re still alive now, they might not be in an hour.”  Erwin stood frozen.  “I’ll text you,” Levi said again, and then he was gone, leaving Erwin unable to move in the little cloud of cinnamon and lemon-scented cleaner and bone-deep want.

  
“Right,” Erwin said to the empty classroom.

 

* * *

 

Erwin fiddled with the cuffs of his white button-down and cast another look at the discarded black shirt on his bed.   _You’ll look like a vicar_ , Mike had texted him an hour ago when Erwin asked his opinion.  Erwin wasn’t sure he trusted a man who wore nothing but flannel shirts, but Mike was married and Erwin had not dated in years, so perhaps Mike knew something Erwin didn’t.  Erwin suspected Mike knew a lot of somethings he didn’t.

  
It was nearing half past seven and Levi hadn’t sent him a message yet, and Erwin was beginning to feel cold and sick and jittery like he hadn’t since he was nineteen and an utter idiot.  He padded into his living room and sat stiffly on the couch, worried about sweating through the shirt, or creasing it to hell before he went out.  If he went out.  Levi hadn’t contacted him, his brain unhelpfully reminded him.

  
Friends went out to drinks all the time.

  
Friends cancelled last minute.  No big deal.

  
Erwin could handle being friends; he _liked_ being friends with Levi.  Maybe he ought to change into something more casual.  Like a flannel shirt.  Mike had given him one as a joke last Christmas, purple and yellow and generally offensive, and then laughed when Erwin tried it on.

  
“Well, fuck me.  You would look good in anything,” Mike had laughed.

  
Erwin didn’t think he looked anything less than ridiculous in it, but if Levi laughed at it… Levi had a laugh that held all of Erwin’s attention.  Huffing snorts, exposed gums, and a wrinkled nose.  

  
His phone buzzed and he made a noise a lot like Levi laughing as he had a heart attack and tried to unlock his screen with sweaty fingers.

 

 _fuck, sorry, just left_.

  
_Oh no_ , Erwin began typing, but another message from Levi popped up before he could finish.

  
_hanji burned a hole through the floor_.

  
_What the hell?_ Erwin shot back.

  
_yeah I’m ready to commit murder._

  
Erwin’s heart sank.  He wanted to gather Levi up and smooth his hair down again, but Levi was—wherever he was.  And most likely wanted nothing to do with Erwin at that moment.   _Rain check?_ he asked, reluctant.

  
Levi didn’t respond for long enough that Erwin was ready to shower off his sweat and disappointment for a century.

  
And then finally, _idk, the promise of alcohol got me through the last hour_ …

  
Erwin’s heart restarted and he was glad he wasn’t nineteen and an absolute idiot anymore.  Thirty-four and a fool was more than enough for him.   _May I call you?_ His heart coughed and he thought that man had been very wrong.  His heart was more like a dilapidated truck on its last legs.

  
_sure._

  
Levi picked up after a two rings, sounding slightly out of breath.  “Hey,” he huffed.

  
“Hello, Levi.”

  
“Shit, hang on.  I gotta order in a sec.”

  
“Wait, what?  Where are you?”  Erwin tried to imagine Levi, illuminated by neon lights in that beat-up black Subaru he drove.  Neon would look good on him, Erwin thought, eyes closed, listening to Levi fumbling with the phone.

  
“Drive-thru.”

  
“Where?”

  
“You don’t wanna know.”

  
Erwin had a split second to decide.  “Want to come over for dinner instead?” he said in a rush.

  
Levi was silent while Erwin sat with his eyes squeezed shut, still trying to imagine him in his car.  Erwin could hear someone speaking in the background.

  
“Ah, sorry,” Levi said.  Erwin bit his lip and made a fist, feeling very much nineteen after all.   “I actually don’t need anything,” Levi said, muffled like he was away from the phone.

  
_Oh_.

  
“Do you cook better than MacDonald’s?” Levi asked a moment later.

  
“Slightly.”

  
Levi snorted.  “Where do you live?” he asked.

  
Erwin’s stomach was full of fireworks.

   

* * *

  

Levi had arrived that fall with far less fanfare than Erwin’s stomach was currently giving him.  The last home economics teacher had retired about ten years later than she probably should have, and Erwin had been nothing short of shocked to see Levi Ackerman, tiny and taciturn, at the first staff meeting of the year.  He had actually been anticipating that class being cut from the budget.

  
“This is the new home ec teacher,” Dok had sneered, making his opinion of home economics perfectly clear, despite having been the one to hire Levi.  Erwin wondered what Dok had seen in the new teacher.  

  
Levi glanced around the room of overly friendly faces, unblinking, and then returned to staring blankly at the meeting itinerary in front of him.  When Levi said nothing, the principal continued, “Uh, Levi Ackerman.”  His face turned red under the whiskers Erwin desperately wished he’d shave, for Marie’s sake, if no one else’s.

  
“What,” Levi said in a tone that perfectly matched his expression.

  
“That’s your name.”

  
“You don’t say,” said Levi.

  
Dok turned purple and Erwin coughed out a poorly disguised laugh. Levi glanced at him, expression unreadable.

  
“I’m introducing you—” Dok began, before sighing heavily.  “I’m quitting this year,” he said.  He said that every year.  Erwin didn't what would shock him more: Dok shaving properly, or actually leaving Shiganshina.  But he liked Dok for some reason, so he cleared his throat.

  
“We’re very happy to have you,” he offered Levi politely.

  
Levi’s gaze flickered over him again, slower this time, visibly skeptical. “Okay,” he said.  And that was that.

   

* * *

 

Despite his severe expression, more students enrolled in home economics that fall than they had in the last seven years Erwin had worked at the high school.  It was baffling.

  
Erwin began watching Levi at lunch, trying to puzzle it out.  He sat alone and seemed to have made no friends amongst the faculty, but students flocked to him in the hallways.  As far as Erwin could tell, all Levi did was bark shortly at them, but they ate it up.

  
Erwin frowned and took an aggressive bite out of a carrot.  It was late September and he had no idea why Levi was so popular.  He sulked alone in his usual black shirt, unprofessional laced-up boots with his boring looking lunch, tiny, tiny, tiny—

  
“When you gonna ask him out,” Mike asked startling Erwin enough that he inhaled his forkful of salad.

  
“Who?” he wheezed, hoping his choking didn’t catch Levi’s attention.

  
Levi did not look up.  Not that Erwin looked to see.

  
Mike gave him an amused look.  “What do you mean “who?’  The little one you’re always staring at.”

  
“Levi,” Erwin corrected immediately and then immediately shoved more lettuce in his mouth to cover the correction.

  
Mike hid his mouth with a broad palm and coughed as delicately as a man his size could, eyes crinkled up like he was working very hard not to laugh at Erwin.  “Alright then,” he said.  “When are you gonna ask _Levi_ out?”

  
“I’m not.  I’ve barely said two words to him.  I’m just curious.”

  
“Coulda fooled me.”  Mike lowered his hand and raised a brow.

  
“You _are_ a fool.”  Erwin lowered his voice and glanced over at Levi where he was eating his food at a table in the corner of the staff room, same as every day.

  
“Smooth, Erwin.”  Mike rolled his eyes.  “You’ve been watching him since he arrived.  Not subtly either.  If you’re so curious, why don’t you go ask him whatever the hell you’re so curious about.”  

  
“Marriage has made you unbearably smug, you know that?”

  
“And you’re worse than the boys in my P.E. classes.”  Mike smiled entirely too gently.  Sometimes, Erwin missed him very much. 

 

* * *

 

The next lunch period, Erwin sat down next to Levi.  Out of curiosity.

  
“May I sit here?” he asked.

  
“Looks like you already did,” Levi said, not looking up while he unwrapped his sandwich.  He had an odd voice, Erwin thought.  It was impossible to tell if he had an accent, or if he was simply as irritated as he sounded.

  
“I can leave,” he offered.

  
“Don’t bother.”  Levi glanced over at Erwin’s hands for a moment where they were wrapped tightly around his tupperware of leftovers.  He shrugged, but didn’t look at Erwin’s face.  Erwin wished he would, so he could have some facial expressions to go on.

  
“Levi,” he said.  He liked that name, he decided.  His mouth had to make a smile as it formed the syllables.

  
Levi frowned and looked up.   _Grey_ , Erwin thought with a burst of the faintest butterflies in his rumbling stomach.  Washed out like skies rained clean.  “I’m Erwin,” he said distantly. 

 

“Good for you,” Levi replied, but his eyes widened and his mouth twitched and Erwin thought of his exchange with Dok.

  
Levi waited for Erwin to begin eating before taking a small, neat bite of his sandwich.  

  
“Are you liking Shiganshina so far?” Erwin asked, around a mouthful of pasta salad; olives and feta and cucumbers.  He wondered what sort of food Levi liked.  His sandwich looked extraordinarily bland.

  
Levi shrugged, gaze flickering to Erwin’s mouth.  “You have shit all over your face.”

  
Erwin blinked and reached quickly for his mouth, relieved to find that there was just a bit cheese at the corner of his lips.  “Oh.  That’s hardly anything.”  He saw Mike’s shoulders shaking where he sat at the other side of the room with Hanji.

  
Levi looked at him with mild horror.  “Sure,” he said slowly.

  
“So?”

  
Levi raised his eyebrows and took another tiny bite of his sandwich.

  
Erwin waved his hand.  “You like it?” He wasn’t sure why, but Levi’s answer mattered a lot to him. _Curiosity killed the cat_.

  
Levi swallowed with an equally dainty bob of his throat above his black mock turtleneck.  Erwin glanced at his chest and then down at his dark jeans.  All of him was small and neat.   _Compact_ , Erwin thought.

  
Levi cleared his throat.  Erwin watched it move.  “I like it,” he said in a voice that shrugged like his shoulders.  His eyes, when Erwin met them, were alight with something Erwin thought was nearly playful.   _But satisfaction.._.

  
  
The fanfare in Erwin’s stomach certainly made up for Dok’s lackluster introduction.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know. 
> 
>  
> 
> Zed, I love you. I have a hundred things so say, but I won't here <3
> 
> Update: I am sorry. I am not actively writing eruri anymore and since I don't know if/when I'll be back to finish... I set this at complete. Ah Zed. Babe. I apologize.


End file.
